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One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics
is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. -- Plato
(429-347 BC)

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Poll Shows Sen. Blanche Lincoln Going Down

The latest Rasmussen Reports shows Boozman picking up 60% support, while Lincoln picks up 35% support. Just two percent (2%) would prefer another candidate, while three percent (3%) are undecided. These figures are little changed from a month ago.

Just seven percent (7%) of Arkansas voters rate the U.S. economy as good or excellent, while 54% rate it as poor. While 24% believe economic conditions are getting better, 51% say conditions are getting worse. Seventy-one percent (71%) of Arkansas voters believe the U.S. economy is currently in a recession.

Only 24% in Arkansas believe the $787 billion economic stimulus package helped the economy overall, while 41% say it hurt the economy. By a 75% to 14% margin, voters in Arkansas believe cutting taxes is a better approach to job creation than increasing government spending.

Both candidates are well-known in the state, but at this point in a campaign, Rasmussen Reports considers the number of people with a strong opinion more significant than the total favorable/unfavorable numbers. In match-ups since Boozman entered the race in February, support for Lincoln has ranged from 29% to 36%. Boozman has earned 48% to 66% of the vote in those same surveys.

Democratic Governor Mike Beebe’s lead over his GOP challenger, Jim Keet, is now down to 10 points in the state’s gubernatorial race. Thirty-four percent (34%) of voters in the state now approve of the job Obama is doing as president, while 65% disapprove. . . . [Full Report]Tags:Arkansas, US Senate, election 2010, John Boozman, Blanche Lincoln, Rasmussen Reports, pollingTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Democratic Governors Association Civil War With Democrats

There may well be a confrontation later this afternoon with DGA at the Netroots Nation. Unbeknownst to most on the Left, news broke last week that the DGA spent nearly $800,000 in Iowa on advertisements that “attacked Pres. Obama and other Dem all-stars.” Today, the DGA will headline a panel at the Netroots Nation – the same place where one of the “Dem all-stars” attacked by the DGA, Nancy Pelosi, is a featured speaker. Things could get a little awkward in Las Vegas, enjoy the exposed Democrats’ hypocrisy. [Video] LOL!

President Obama: Where Are the Jobs?

House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) issued the following statement in response to inaccurate, partisan attacks in the President’s Weekly Address:

“Out-of-touch and unable to sell his agenda in the face of near-double-digit unemployment, President Obama is resorting to partisan attacks, rather than working with Republicans to help the American people, who are asking, ‘where are the jobs?’

“The fact is that Washington Democrats’ policies have created uncertainty that has undermined our economy, shaken the confidence of the nation, and cost millions of American jobs. Our nation needs leadership – not excuses.

“Republicans are offering better solutions to stop the Democrats’ tax hikes, end their massive spending spree, repeal and replace ObamaCare, and get America’s economy back on track.”

NOTE: House Republicans’ “No Cost Jobs Plan” was given to President Obama by House Republican Leader Boehner and House Republican Whip Eric Cantor at the White House on December 9, 2009. They sent a follow-up letter on July 15, 2010, urging the President to stop his job-killing agenda and work with Republicans to “enact policies that encourage private sector job creation.”Tags:Job, U.S. House, Republican Leader, John Boehner, President ObamaTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Michele Bachmann at Right OnLine 2010 - Obama is One-Term President

"Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) tells the crowd at RightOnline, a conservative gathering in Las Vegas, that President Obama is bound for one-term because he wants to raise taxes. July 23, 2010." [TPMTV Video]

Rep. Michele Bachman brought the conservatives attending RightOnline to their feet multiple times . . . in a keynote speech where she said she'd like to repeal "almost everything" and predicted President Obama is a one-term president. . . . Bachmann promised that if she were in charge, "You'd have 100 percent repeal of ObamaCare," indicating that she's not in favor of the Republican leadership's less brash "repeal and replace" plan. "Let's repeal almost everything Nancy Pelosi did," Bachmann said as the crowd applauded wildly. She said she wants "The big mother of all repeal bills."

She talked about tax policy and called Democratic leadership the "Pelosi-Obama-Reid cabal." . . . "The sleeping giant is awake," Bachmann said. "We are going to take back this country the first Tuesday of November. It's going to happen." She later added that the group wants to "just have our country the way that it was before."

Friday, July 23, 2010

HOT! Tea Party Candidate could be single Senate vote that stops Dems dead in tracks during lame duck session!

Folks, I have been following the efforts and advancement of Christine O'Donnell in a race to replace former Sen, now VP Joe Biden as the Senator from Delaware. She is an absolutely superb candidate over an old establishment RINO type candidate by the name of Mike Castle. If elected, she could be the key to helping to stop the Obama/Reid/Pelosi socialist agenda right in its tracks. A lot of shenanigans can be expected during the lame duck session, and we don't need someone like Mike Castle as a placeholder for the democrats who will also vote with the liberal verses conservative agenda. Thus, I commend to you the following article by Eric Odem. If you know someone in Delaware, encourage them to vote Christine O'Donnell. Also consider sending $5, $10 or more to her campaign. Let's stop both the Democrats and the RINOs.
----------------by Eric Odem, The Activist Traveler:(Link NA 12/24/2014) I don’t know why this hasn’t made the rounds yet, but what I’m about to write is explosive and should have the entire liberty movement ready to act.

There have been signs in recent weeks that party leaders are planning an ambitious, lame-duck session to muscle through bills in December they don’t want to defend before November. Retiring or defeated members of Congress would then be able to vote for sweeping legislation without any fear of voter retaliation.

The U.S. Senate will provide Democrats with a solid opportunity because Scott Brown, the Republican who is now acting and voting like a Democrat, will likely help them pass some of these bad laws in a lame duck session.

Now back to that special election in Delaware…
Because the election to replace Joe Biden is a special election, the winner would be immediately seated. You see what I’m getting at?

Now depending on who wins, this could be a blessing or a curse. Let me explain…
Liberal Republican Mike Castle is literally the most far left Republican in Congress right now. The laws he’s passed are staggering when it comes to direct violations of his oath to protect the rights and liberties of Americans.

Not only does Mike Castle carry water for the far left Obama administration (his recent votes in support of Financial Regulation and Cap-and-trade are perfect examples), Castle co-authored the potentially disastrous “Grassroots Gag Order,” or Disclose Act that would possibly hit the Senate for a vote in the lame duck. This means that Mike Castle would be able to vote on these laws twice. And we already know how he’ll vote.

So you see, Mike Castle would almost certainly vote WITH the Democrats and join their efforts to force bad laws upon the American people in a lame duck session.

The movement has hope, however, in that tea party Candidate Christine O’Donnell is now surging in the Republican Primary race and Mike Castle is slipping significantly. Christine O’Donnel would, without a doubt, strongly oppose and vote against these bad laws and she would stand tall with the American people in the process.

Do you see the implications here? This makes the Delaware Senate race the most important Senate race in the country for the movement. If Mike Castle wins, the Democrats and Obama get to push their agenda on us. If Christine O’Donnell wins, Democrats are stopped dead in their tracks.

The tea party candidate in the Delaware Senate race could derail the plans of the left. That is, if we can help her cross the finish line and win.

With this in mind, I strongly encourage you to visit Christine2010.com and do what needs to be done.Tags:Delaware, US Senate, candidate, Christine O'Donnell, Mike Castle, lame duck session, liberal agenda, Election 2010To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Thurber's Thoughts Captures Mike Pence Comments at RightOnline

Maggie Thurber who blogs at Thurber Thoughts has quick fingers and captured the key points of a speech by Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) today before the Americans for Prosperity RightOnline Conference in Las Vegas. Pence leads the US House Republican Caucus is very popular speaker with conservatives. My fingers could not keep-up beyond twittering. But Maggie was exceptional in keeping up. with Rep. Pence's key comments:

* Welcomes us to Las Vegas where we will win back the west.
* Rented an old movie - called 'When Harry Met Sharon" ... don't want to ruin the movie, the Harry lost. (Harry Reid vs. Sharon Angle for Senate in Nevada)
* What happens in Vegas must not stay in Vegas - what you hear and learn here, you need to take to your homes.
* I'm a conservative, but I'm not in a bad move about it. I'm optimistic about the future and the conservative movement.
* We have a challenge - Pres. Barack Obama had a 120% approval rating, according to MSNBC. He also had a 65% approval in all 57 states.
* Freedom-loving Americans are on the march to win back the nation with their conservative ideals. Even Republicans in Congress have returned to the fight for fiscal discipline and limited government.
* Three years ago, Republicans in Congress didn't just lose their majority, they lost their way.
* Our party lost our principles, but we've found our way. Republicans are standing strong with unanimous opposition to big government and less freedoms.
* Despite conservative gains, we are facing challenges, we've lost respect in the world, we're going broke...
* We need to return our national government to the common sense and common values of everyday Americans.
* Americans are out of work and Democrats are out of ideas. They said we needed to borrow billions to keep unemployment below 8% and now it's at 10%.
* V. Pres. Joe Biden touts jobs 'created or saved,' but according to Bureau of Labor Statistics, that's not accurate.
* American families don't want to rely on government's jobless benefits, they want jobs with benefits...and Democrats are offering only more borrowing, more spending and more deficits.
* $26 Billion is projected debt in 2026 (?)
* Spent $1.6 trillion in the first 8 months of the Obama presidency, according to their own numbers.
* It is morally wrong to take the incomes of future Americans to pay for the problems of today.
* We're looking into the doe-eyed faces of our children and grandchildren and saying 'give us your credit card.'
* Americans are saying enough is enough. We must make the hard choices today to deal with the problems of today.
* Democrats have increased taxes by $670 billion. Their answer to problems is to raise taxes - and are talking about embracing the largest tax increase in American history: every income tax bracket in the country will increase as of January 1 if the Bush tax cuts expire.
* Washington DC doesn't tax too little, it spends too much!
* Only in DC would you find people who believe that increasing taxes in this economy will create jobs.
* House Republicans will oppose the tax increase on every American with everything they've got.
* Getting the economy moving again requires government to get out of control and out of the way and American will come roaring back.
* Need to restore fiscal discipline by ending the era of takeovers and bailouts once and for all.
* Americans deserve health reform that lowers their costs without growing the size of government.
* Democrats may have had their say on the first Sunday in March, but Americans will have their say on the first Tuesday in November.
* Republicans will not rest until we repeal this lock, stock and barrel.
* If you want to repeal ObamaCare, you start by 'repealing' Nancy Pelosi in November.
* And no more bailouts for insurance companies, banks, auto companies or socialist foreign nations.
* The freedom to succeed must include the freedom to fail.
* We must get spending under control in Washington DC. We've tried everything with both parties in control...
* We must limit federal spending to no more than 20% of the nation's economy in the Constitution of the USA.
* If God can get by with 10%, Uncle Sam ought to be able to get by on 20%.
* Our present crisis if not just economic and political, it is moral in nature. People in positions of authority have walked away from the principle of an honest day's work for an honest day's pay, and honesty in dealings with others - the golden rule.
* This starts in our families, our churches and our communities.
* What is at stake, what this is really all about. The day after the Wall Street bailouts, he was in his home state and many people thanked me for my vote against the bailouts. One man who'd just lost his job came out to thank him for his vote against the bailout. He said, 'I can get another job, but I cannot get another country.'
* We know what is at stake: the right to live and work in freedom.
* This election is not about who will be in control in the House and Senate, but about who is in control of our nation. Now is the time for all of us to do what we can to promote the principles that make this nation great.
* You will not fight alone. quote: Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land and unto all the inhabitants thereof.
* The time has come to take our stand - the time for action is at hand. We must not be afraid but fight for the source of America's greatness: our faith in God and our freedom.
* We will take the Congress back in 2010 and take the nation back in 2012, so help us God.

White House Predicts Record $1.47 Trillion Deficit

Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson responded today:

"The announced $1.47 trillion deficit by the Obama Administration is just the latest insult to American taxpayers, who during these stressful economic times are scaling back their family budgets but watch helplessly as government dramatically expands without paying for it. That money will have to borrowed through Treasury auctions, and what cannot be borrowed will simply be printed by the Federal Reserve, which already holds $777 billion in U.S. treasuries.

"In the process, the government is chaining the American people, and future generations, to a mountain of debt that cannot possibly be paid back, and strangling any hope of growth or economic recovery. The spending splurge is destroying hope of Americans who don't want more unemployment insurance, but instead want a job."

House republican Leader John Boehner responded:

“Today’s report is a stark reminder of the legacy of Obamanomics: more spending, more debt, and fewer jobs. This report confirms that our national debt will double in five years and triple in 10 years. It confirms that our deficits are not sustainable.

“For the next fiscal year, the deficit is estimated to be $150 billion higher than it was in February. Deficits are $243 billion higher for the next five years compared to February. Yet Washington Democrats still refuse to produce a budget. This report is a testament to a failure of leadership from President Obama and Democratic Leaders in Congress.

“There is a better way. House Republicans have offered up to $1.3 trillion in spending cuts to help get our nation on the path to fiscal sanity. We have offered to support a package of immediate cuts if President Obama sends one to Capitol Hill. Working together, we can make the hard choices necessary to save this country from the ruin of endless spending, endless deficits, and endless debt, and preserve the American dream for future generations.”

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Update 2:15 PM: Congress has approved a six-month extension of emergency jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed. The House gave the measure final approval and sent it on to the White House.
------------
The Senate began consideration of a resolution marking the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, S. Res. 591. Following 2 hours of debate, the Senate will take up H.J. Res. 83, the Burma Sanctions Resolution for up to 20 minutes of debate and will then vote on the resolutions.

Following the votes, the Senate will return to the small business bill, H.R. 5297. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is blocking amendments from other senators, but has allowed two Democrat amendments which he filed cloture on: the Reid-Baucus substitute amendment and the Landrieu amendment which amounts to a mini-bailout.

Yesterday, the Senate vote of 59-39 to concur to House amendment to H.R. 4213, the unemployment benefits extension bill The bill adds $34 billion to the national debt. The House is expected vote and pass the bill today.

Prior to that vote, the Senate rejected 5 motions to suspend the rules to allow Republican amendments to the unemployment insurance extension. All needed 67 votes to be successful. One, offered by Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA), would have extended unemployment benefits for 6 months by paying for the costs with unallocated stimulus money. It failed by a vote of 42-56.

Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell expressed outrage not at extending unemployment benefits but at failing to pay for the bill and for teh government continuing to stifle job creation. He said, “[I]n the middle of a jobs crisis, [Democrats] continue to push one bill after another containing job stifling taxes, new rules and regulations, and government intrusion into business. Their signature piece of jobs legislation appears to be a bill that borrows $34 billion from our grandchildren to help folks who can’t find a job in the environment Democrats have created over the past year and half.” And Democrats appear to be eager to move to another piece of legislation that is certain to kill jobs and raise taxes on Americans at a time of near-10% unemployment, an energy bill based around a carbon cap-and-trade scheme.

Two weeks ago, The Hill reported, “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) plans to bring broad energy legislation to the Senate floor as soon as the week of July 26 that will include provisions to limit greenhouse gas emissions from electric power plants. ‘We hope to be able to do it the week after next,’ he told reporters in the Capitol Tuesday.” But even before that, many Democrats were deeply skeptical of any cap-and-trade bill, and Reid has struggled to not only find agreement among his fellow Democrats, but also to find time for such a bill between bills that add to the debt and a Supreme Court nomination.

Today, Democrats are in such disarray on energy and climate legislation that they’re meeting to try and figure out what to do from here. According to CQ "Senate Democrats will confer behind closed doors Thursday about energy legislation, amid fresh doubts about the timing and scope of a bill they hope to bring to the floor next week.” Just yesterday, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), the majority whip, said to Roll Call about a climate bill, “We’re not doing it before we leave in August.” But an hour later, Roll Call reported, “A spokesman for Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin said Wednesday that the Illinois Democrat ‘misspoke’ when he said the Senate is unlikely to take up energy legislation next week because of schedule constraints.”

CQ reports today, “Other Democrats, including Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., say they continue to wait for Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to decide how — or whether — to proceed on energy. A Reid spokesman said in an e-mail that no decision had been made on whether to delay the energy debate until fall, a possibility raised Wednesday by Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill. Durbin’s staff later backtracked on his comments.”

But Democrats may not have to wait until the fall, or even next week for their energy policies to constrain job growth. In an article titled “As U.S. suspends deep-water oil drilling, other nations move ahead,”The Washington Post writes today, “Some of these countries stand to gain from the uncertainties in the United States prompted by the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. This month, Diamond Offshore Drilling announced that it is sending one of its deep-water drilling rigs from the gulf to Egypt. . . . Last week, Diamond said another Gulf of Mexico rig called the Ocean Confidence would depart for Congo. On Tuesday, Marathon Oil Chief Executive Clarence P. Cazalot Jr. said that his company might divert a rig being built in Singapore and due to be delivered to the Gulf of Mexico in December. ‘If I can't use it in the gulf, I won't bring it to the gulf,’ he said.”

As Sen. McConnell said, “For more than a year and a half, the President and his Democrat allies on Capitol Hill have pushed an anti-business, anti-jobs agenda on the American people in the form of one massive government intrusion after another. And then they celebrate.” From the stimulus to the health care law to the financial regulation law, Democrats all congratulated each other on these ill-conceived policies that are either doing nothing to help our economy recover or actively costing Americans jobs. And now Democrats are looking to do the same thing with energy. The administration’s drilling moratorium threatens thousands of jobs along the Gulf Coast and the Democrats’ climate bill features a national energy tax at the worst possible time. It’s long past time for a change of course towards an agenda that creates jobs and grows the economy instead of one that grows government and adds to the debt.Tags:US Senate, Washington, unemployment, jobs, To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Marginalization by Defamation: How The Left Uses Race Against Anyone, Anytime, Anyplace

by Duane Lester, All American Blogger: From its inception, the Tea Party has been under attack. The movement that was inspired by an off the cuff Rick Santelli rant on CNBC in February of 2009 finds itself the target of a leftist body politic that historically has shown little patience with dissent. And as per their standard operating procedure, they attack their opposition with charges of racism.

This isn’t new. For decades radicals, leftists and liberals have been quick to pull the race card in the face of the slightest criticism or opposing opinion, regardless of how ridiculous the situation.

“The thought of living with 100,000 white people…horrifies me.”

In 1983, the radical socialist Berkeley Citizens Action had control of the Berkeley school board and announced they were going to close some of the city’s schools. They said the reason was to save money.

The people of Berkeley felt that was doubtful. They thought the BCA was looking to further punish the liberals who lived in the Berkeley Hills. That’s right. The socialists didn’t like the liberals.

When the school board slated John Muir School for closure, despite the fact close to $2 million had just been spent on it for earth-quake proofing, and it being a model school in the Berkeley school system, parents were convinced this was not about saving money. John Muir was in the hills. Carroll Williams was president of the school board at the time and opposed the BCA’s plan. “Half the students were black, bused up there under the integration plan,” Williams said.“Virtually no black parents were for closing Muir.” Williams was accused of being “objectively racist.” Williams was black.

It was later revealed the BCA intended to put low cost housing in the closed schools and use them to repopulate Berkeley with blacks. The black population had dropped by nearly 25 percent as many sold houses they bought decades eariler and were now worth selling. A BCA school board member said, “The thought of living with 100,000 white people who eat at Chez Panisse every night horrifies me.”

Neighborhoods in Berkeley began organizing against the BCA. Barry Wofsy was one of the leaders of the neighborhood movement and said, “The BCA are masters at manipulating symbols and language. No matter what side of an issue you’re on, you’re a racist if you’re not with them.”

That tactic was used in the 2008 campaign against two Democrat icons.

“If Obama was a white man…”

Former Congresswoman and Vice Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro was about to get educated. Despite being in politics for thirty plus years, she had never faced an opponent who not only charged her with racism, but had the media behind them to make it stick. Ferraro was in the Clinton camp in the 2008 election. During an interview with The Daily Breeze, she stated:

"I think what America feels about a woman becoming president takes a very secondary place to Obama’s campaign – to a kind of campaign that it would be hard for anyone to run against,” she said. “For one thing, you have the press, which has been uniquely hard on her. It’s been a very sexist media. Some just don’t like her. The others have gotten caught up in the Obama campaign.""If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position,” she continued. “And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.”

"The notion that it is a great advantage to me, an African-American named Barack Obama, in pursuit of the presidency I think is not a view that has been commonly shared by the general public,” he said during a campaign event at the Chicago History Museum."“Divisions of race, gender, of region are precisely what has inhibited us from moving effectively forward to solve big problems like health care, energy, the war on terror,” he said.

Obama himself never called her a racist. He didn’t need to. As with so many things during the 2008 campaign, he let his sycophantic mouthpieces make the case for him. People like Keith Olbermann said Ferraro’s statement was “clearly racist.” Obama’s senior advisor David Axelrod called for Ferraro to be removed:

“The bottom line is this, when you wink and nod at offensive statements, you’re really sending a signal to your supporters that anything goes,” Axelrod said in a conference call with reporters on Tuesday.

"Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says let’s address reality and the problems we’re facing in this world, you’re accused of being racist, so you have to shut up."

Eventually, Ferraro had to resign from Clinton’s campaign. Obama’s spin team had effectively branded her a racist. They then turned their sights on a bigger target: America’s first black president. By the time they were done with Clinton, he was a racist too.

It’s not about bashing Democrats, it’s not about taxes, they have no idea what the Boston tea party was about, they don’t know their history at all. This is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up.That premise has been bounced off every wall of the liberal echo chamber. Black congressmen walked through a sea of Tea Party activists. Some claimed they heard racial slurs being chanted at them. Video evidence disputed that claim. Andrew Breitbart offered $100,000 to anyone who could produce evidence proving the claim. None has been produced.

Rather than address the legitimate concerns of the Tea Party, the leftists and their myrmidons return to the hammer they have used against every nail they have faced. They are attempting to marginalize and discredit the Tea Party by convincing the masses they are racists. This allows them to continue their agenda without having to actually address the opposition.

Expect the efforts to be redoubled in the coming months. It’s obvious what agenda the Democrats will be running on in November. The left knows this is a very effective tactic. We’ve seen this platform before. It was used against Carroll Williams and Geraldine Ferraro. No matter what is said against the Democrats, it will be labeled racist. David Horowitz explains why it works:

> There is no recourse for the individual targets of these gutter attacks, no national arbiter of fairness and balance. The libel laws will not protect a public figure falsely accused, and probably no private citizen either. The courts regard the charge of “racism” under the category of opinion, which is libel-proof in our First Amendment culture.The left has done this time and again throughout their history in America. Before, the victims of this tactic have not been able to withstand or refute the charge. Today, members of the movement like Andrew Breitbart are leading the charge against marginalization by defamation. If enough people follow his lead, perhaps this time it will fail.Tags:Duane Lester, defamation, race, racism, To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Recalling Obama's Commitment to Jobs - Approval Rating Falls Again

Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: Obama’s Commitment To Jobs I - Two studies were released this week on the economic impact of the Gulf oil spill. According to the research firm Moody’s, if the Deepwater Horizon leak remains contained, the Gulf states stand to lose $1.2 billion in economic output and as many as 17,000 jobs.

As bad as the oil spill has been for the fishing and tourism industries, Moody’s analysis concluded, “The potential for even greater economic damage to Louisiana’s economy stems from President Obama’s six-month moratorium on new offshore drilling.”

The second study, conducted by Dr. Joseph Mason of Louisiana State University, focused on the potential consequences of the Obama Administration’s drilling ban. According to Dr. Mason, if the drilling ban remains in effect, the Gulf states stand to lose $2.1 billion and 8,000 jobs. The “spill-over effects” could cost another 4,000 jobs nationally.

The oil spill is an economic and environmental disaster. But the administration’s actions – from its slow response to its ill-conceived drilling ban – have only compounded the tragedy by putting thousands of jobs at risk when the region can least afford it.

Obama’s Commitment To Jobs II - When Congress approved the creation of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), it also created the Office of the Special Inspector General (SIGTARP) to monitor how these funds were administered. A new audit from TARP’s Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky offers a scathing critique of the auto industry bailout and takeover. Barofsky even goes so far as to state that the Obama Administration’s actions led to unnecessary layoffs and contributed to higher unemployment. Consider this excerpt:

“At a time when the country was experiencing the worst economic downturn in generations and the government was asking its taxpayers to support a $787 billion stimulus package designed primarily to preserve jobs, Treasury made a series of decisions that may have substantially contributed to the accelerated shuttering of thousands of small businesses and thereby potentially adding tens of thousands of workers to the already lengthy unemployment rolls – all based on a theory and without sufficient consideration of the decisions’ broader economic impact.

“It is not at all clear that the greatly accelerated pace of the dealership closings during one of the most severe economic downturns in our Nation’s history was either necessary for the sake of the companies’ economic survival or prudent for the sake of the Nation’s economic recovery.”

You may recall that at the time there was some controversy over how GM and Chrysler decided which dealerships to shut down. It appeared as though political considerations, rather than purely financial issues, were involved in the decisions to terminate certain dealerships.

Inspector General Barofsky weighed in on “Dealergate” as well, writing, “Just as troubling, there was little or no documentation of the decision-making process to terminate or retain dealerships with similar profiles, making it impossible in many cases for SIGTARP to determine the causes of deviations from the supposedly objective criteria.”

As Michelle Malkin writes, Barofsky’s audit tells you “Everything you need to know about the nightmare of government-controlled businesses…” It’s a tale of “grisly incompetence, fatal bureaucratic hubris and Big Labor cronyism.” Just wait until this crowd starts running our health care too!

How Low Can He Go? - Quinnipiac University released a new poll today showing that Obama’s job approval rating has “dropped to a negative 44-to-48 percent, his worst net score ever.” One year ago, Obama’s rating was 57%-to-33%, “just before the political firestorm created by opposition to his health care plan galvanized political opponents and turned independent voters against him.” What about those independent voters? According to Quinnipiac’s findings, they now disapprove of Obama by a 14-point margin of 38%-to-52%.

- On specific issues, Obama’s ratings are down across the board in this latest poll of nearly 2,200 registered voters. Here are some key findings: - On foreign policy, 46% disapprove and 43% approve. - On his handling of the Gulf oil spill, 51% disapprove and 41% approve. - On the economy, 56% disapprove of Obama’s performance, while just 39% approve. - And on his handling of illegal immigration, 58% disapprove, while only 30% approve.

On immigration, Quinnipiac delved further, asking voters about the direction immigration reform should take and their views on Arizona’s new anti-illegal immigration law. The results were remarkable. Sixty-nine percent of voters want immigration reform to move in the direction of “stricter enforcement,” while just 22% want immigration reform to move in the direction of “integrating illegal immigrants into American society.” Those figures represent a seven-point swing toward stricter enforcement from Quinnipiac’s June poll.

On Arizona’s new law, 55% of voters support it, while 30% oppose it. By a 16-point margin, voters would support their state passing a similar law, and 60% of voters oppose the Obama Administration’s lawsuit against Arizona, while just 28% support it.

But wait…there’s more! For the first time, more Americans now think the country would be better off had John McCain won the 2008 election. And looking ahead to 2012, Quinnipiac notes that 48% of voters do not believe Obama deserves reelection, while just 40% do. Obama won’t be on the ballot in 2010, but his socialist enablers in Congress will be. And there is good news on that front too. Quinnipiac found that registered voters now prefer Republican candidates by five points in the upcoming congressional elections.

Given the well-documented “enthusiasm gap” between liberal and conservative voters this year and the generally higher turnout among conservative voters in mid-term elections, many political analysts believe that a GOP lead in polls like this could translate into a Republican landslide on Election Day. As optimistic as this sounds, I’m not taking anything for granted. The Democrats are desperate to maintain their stranglehold on power, and they have plans to spend more than $100 million to make sure their left-wing base turns out in November. We cannot afford to be lulled into a false sense of complacency. The stakes are simply too great. -------------Gary Bauer is is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families. He submitted the above in an email to the ARRA News Service Editor. Bauer was a former Republican presidential candidate and served as President Ronald Reagan’s domestic policy adviser.Tags:Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families, Barack Obama, jobs, approval ratingTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Dem Hour Energy

by William Warren:Democrat? Down in the Polls? Need a Boost? What Do You Do? Stand on Principle? Debate Your Opponents?Try This Instead - Call 'em Racists!Hours of Distraction Now. Hugh Cash in November.Tags:William Warren, political cartoon, Democrats, racists, Call
em racists, To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Efforts Again Being Made To Go Around Electoral College

By Chad Groening, OneNewsNow: An author and political analyst reports an effort is afoot by well-funded liberal activists to effectively get rid of the Electoral College in its present form, without having to use the constitutional amendment process.

A group called National Popular Vote (NPV) is pushing state legislatures to enter into a compact that calls for them to allocate their electoral votes in a particular presidential election to the candidate who gets the most votes nationwide rather than to the contender who gets the most votes in their state. NPV argues that the legislation "would reform the Electoral College so that the electoral vote reflects the choice of the nation's voters" for president.

However, Tara Ross, author of Enlightened Democracy: The Case for the Electoral College, cautions that under such a plan, the 11 largest states -- with a total of 271 electoral votes -- could band together and elect the president.

"If you got those 11 biggest states to all agree to do that, you would be switching to a direct election system," she explains. "By contrast, if you were to try to formally get rid of the Electoral College through a constitutional amendment, that would take 38 states, which is a much higher hurdle to climb and one they think they can't climb, which is why they're trying to do it through this kind of end-run around the constitutional process."

Ross has a suggestion as to why the NPV is pushing for this change. "What I think they must think is that they have strength in the urban areas and in the heavily populated areas," she suspects. "So therefore, if you switch to an individual election, then they can just go focus on those people and rack up votes there, and it will end up helping their cause."

The political analyst notes that five states have already joined the compact -- Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, and Washington (a total of 61 electoral votes). Five more states (California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont) could join in the near future.

----------------

Bill Smith, Editor, ARRA News Service: Arkansas dallied with this proposed item and fortunately it died in the Arkansas Senate after being passed by the Arkansas House. At that time, after 135 years of political control in Arkansas, Democrats were willing to surrender the people's votes to the East and west coast liberal agenda. As identified in a prior ARRA News Service article:

As an example, if Bill Clinton had won the majority vote in Arkansas for President but had not won the most votes nationwide, then Arkansas electoral votes would NOT have been voted for Bill Clinton. In the last presidential election, the peoples of Arkansas voted in the majority (58.72%) for John McCain and 38.86% voted for Barack Obama and 2.42% voted for other people. Arkansas casts it electoral college votes for John McCain in accordance with the majority vote. However, under the proposed bill, the electoral college votes would have been awarded to Barrack Obama because he won California, New York and other highly populated states. . . .

It was never intended for the President to be elected by popular vote but that the votes by the states should be weighted (thus the electoral votes) thus providing a more fair playing field to represent all of the people of the United States. Only four times in history (1824, 1876, 1888 and 2000) has the electoral college vote not also resulted in the same outcome as the general national popular vote; when more of the people in a larger geographic areas of the US supported a different president than those voting from the highly dense populated areas. The electoral college worked. Much of the reaction to change the electoral college by the democrats is in reaction to the failure of Al Gore to win the presidency. But even in the 2000 Arkansas election, Gore in spite of the fact that President Clinton campaigned in Arkansas for Gore. Bush received 51% of the vote, Gore 46%, Others 3%. . . . This proposed action has been one of the major actions items at the Democratic National Committee . . . .

News Tries to Paint Arkansas Tea Party As Racist

Arkansas Conservative News Network - By Kenneth Wallis,Little Rock Immigration Examiner: As stated in the Secure Arkansas Updates story, KARK Channel 4 did a story which attempts to merge the Arkansas Tea Party movement with racist Billy Roper. With no video or picture footage of Roper at any of the many Tea Party meetings and events across the state, KARK put a translucent picture of Roper and a Nazi Flag over a picture of Tea Party Activist at the Arkansas State Capitol. Here is a video taken during the April 15th 2010 Tea Party protest. After the National Anthem and some other announcements, a statement about the position of the Arkansas Tea Party is made. The statement regarding racist starts at 5:30 and goes until the end of the video. Copies of the statement were made available to any media outlet.

Secure Arkansas decided to do it's own investigation by calling several Tea Party leaders.The results are a very different picture than the alleged "controversy" talked about by KARK. Details of the Secure Arkansas Investigation and a full transcript of the KARK story are available here . . . Read MoreTags:Kenneth Wallis, KARN, Arkansas, Elections, false allegations, racism, TEA PartyTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Senate resumed post-cloture consideration of the House message to accompany H.R. 4213, the vehicle for an unemployment insurance extension which would add $34 billion to the national debt.

SCOTUS Nomination: Yesterday, the Senate voted 60-40 to invoke cloture on the House message to accompany H.R. 4213, following the swearing in of the new West Virginia Senator, Carte Goodwin (D). Also yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13-6 to send the nomination of Elena Kagan to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court to the full Senate. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) betrayed conservatives and voted for Elena Kagan. Graham didn't even need to vote as evidenced by his "mush mouthed" statement defended his vote, "The Constitution in my view puts a requirement on me as a senator to not replace my judgment for his [the Presidents], not to think of the 100 reasons I would pick somebody differently, or pick a fight with Miss Kagan." Graham is apparently saying there are no good reasons not to confirm Kagan.

Graham's repeated efforts undermining fellow Republicans has caused some to focus on Graham. "CBS News originally reported the SCOTUS nominee to be an openly homosexual Lesbian, but later described her as a closeted Lesbian." William Gheen of ALIPAC stated, "I hope this secret isn't being used as leverage over Senator Graham, so today I think Senator Graham, you need to come forward and tell people about your alternative lifestyle and your homosexuality." Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt responded. "If Gheen's allegations are correct, it could logically explain why the Homosexual Graham supported the Lesbian Kagan, against the pleas of thousands of phone callers and faxers who demanded Graham filibuster Kagan." It is evident that Graham is in the spotlight again but it is primarily because of his own admitted unwillingness to do "due diligence" as a Senator. This combined with Sen. Specter changing from RINO to Democrat and with Graham's backroom deals with democrats has identified Graham clearly as the top RINO.

Democrat's Job-Killing Agenda: This morning, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell addressed this agenda: “For more than a year and a half, the President and his Democrat allies on Capitol Hill have pushed an anti-business, anti-jobs agenda on the American people in the form of one massive government intrusion after another. . . . As I stand here this morning, millions of Americans are struggling to find jobs — and yet all they see in Washington are Democrats passing massive bills that, at their core, seem to have one thing in common: more job loss.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) took exception to this, and claimed that none of the major points made by Sen. McConnell is really true. But the counterpoints Reid employed in his response simply get the facts wrong.

Sen. McConnell said, “Later this morning the President will sign a financial regulation bill that was sold to the American people as a way of reining in Wall Street. Anyone who believes that didn’t read beyond the cover sheet. Because if they did, they’d discover instead a far-reaching government intrusion that was endorsed by Wall Street and opposed by Main Street.” But Reid took issue with this, proclaiming, “To think that banks, Wall Street, liked Wall Street reform is a stretch beyond our ability to comprehend.” Reid must have missed Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs, telling a Senate subcommittee, “I listened to a speech by Barack Obama at Wall Street, and one of the points he made resonated with me because I’d said it myself. He said that the biggest beneficiaries of reform will be Wall Street itself.” While Citibank and J.P. Morgan also offered praise for the Democrats’ bill, but community bankers and small businesses are worried the bill will adversely affect them.

Sen. McConnell also noted, “As a result of the health bill, small businesses, student loan centers, tanning salons, medical device manufacturers, hospitals, and major American employers have all either laid off employees or are trying to figure out how not to.” Reid’s response was to assert, “Remember, any poll you see today, the majority of the American people support what we did here with health care.” But in July alone, 3 polls have come out showing that no more than 40% of Americans support the Democrats’ costly health care legislation. Two polls actually showed 35% or 36% support for the health care bill, and the one poll that showed 40% support, from PPP, showed 53% oppose it.

Sen. McConnell pointed out, “Just this week we read a report that during the process of the auto bailout, this Administration decided to shut down auto-dealers, without cause, effectively costing thousands of Americans their jobs.” Reid replied, “My friend says that we bailed out the auto industry. Well, isn’t that a good thing we did? . . . If it were up to them [Republicans], Ford Motor Company would probably be gone.” Did Reid forget that, as The Hill noted, Ford was “the only U.S. automaker not to take a bailout”? Not only that, The New York Times reported in April, “The Ford Motor Company had its best quarterly performance in six years, earning $2.1 billion, and now expects to return to profitability this year, executives said . . . .”

Clearly, Democrats don’t want to talk about the fact that their agenda has featured one job-killing piece of legislation after another: bailouts for auto companies, a massive takeover of the healthcare system that Americans never wanted, and now a burdensome financial regulation bill “that does nothing to reform the government-sponsored enterprises that many people believe to have been at the root of the financial crisis this bill grew out of; that was meant to rein in Wall Street, but which is now supported by some of Wall Street’s biggest banks; and that’s meant to help the economy, but which is expected to stifle growth and kill more jobs,” as Sen. McConnell described it today.

He explained, “Americans are tired of this kind of ‘reform.’ Job stifling taxes, regulations, government intrusion. These appear to be the three pillars of every Democratic legislative effort. They’re also the three things lawmakers can do that are guaranteed to kill more jobs. That's why it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that unemployment’s been scraping double digits since Democrats started ramming these so-called reform bills through Congress.”

The bottom line, Sen. McConnell said, “It’s almost as if it’s a prerequisite for any Democrat legislation: If it leads to more job loss, they’ll pass it.” These aren’t the reforms Americans wanted and this isn’t the kind of change they were looking for.Tags:US Senate, Washington, unemployment, jobs, SCOTUS, Elena Kagan, Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnellHarry ReidTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Iraq Veterans Running for Congress

Iraq Veterans for Congress (IVC): Iraq Veterans have already demonstrated selfless service to country, an attribute sorely missing in Washington. The perseverance and dedication that turned defeat in Iraq into victory is exactly the type of bold leadership that we need to overcome our current economic and national security challenges. We look for conservative Republican veterans who are determined to become a voice for U.S. military veterans, their families, and hardworking patriotic Americans who believe that our country, our Constitution and our way of life are worth fighting for. [Video]

Obama: Mr. Incredible

by David Keene: During the healthcare debate, President Obama and his operatives assured congressional Democrats and the media that once Obama-Care passed, all would be well. The president himself said the GOP focus on process would be forgotten quickly by a public far more interested in “policy than process.”

However, the public has made it clear it likes neither the product (about which more is being learned by the day) nor the process that led to passage. Many of the deals needed to piece together majorities in the House and Senate received enough publicity at the time to outrage many, but as time goes on revelations about additional concessions made to woo votes are justifying what were dismissed as simple partisan attacks during the debate. Moreover, the possible consequences of the bill are making many wake up and take note.

When critics of the legislation alleged during the debate that the enforcement of its many provisions would vastly increase the power of the IRS and empower tax collectors to go where they had never gone before, administration spokesmen reacted in outrage. The president’s critics, they charged, were not just wrong, but lying to scare people.

It turns out that the critics were dead right and that if there was any lying going on, they weren’t the guilty ones. In the days since passage, we have learned that the IRS will have to hire literally thousands of new agents, auditors and analysts to make sure everyone required to buy into the program does so and to catch those who violate its many provisions as well as to collect the data that will be required of small businesses to help the government collect new taxes to pay for the scheme.

The result is that small-business owners who were promised they would benefit from the new law are up in arms as they discover that they will in fact be targets of an IRS planning to impose even more regulations on the way they operate. The absolute ludicrousness of the new requirements is that business owners will apparently now be required to file forms reporting on aggregate annual payments of as little as $600 to “vendors” like Staples or the office coffee supplier.

Meanwhile, it turns out that while some members of Congress were being promised one thing in return for their votes, others were being assured that such promises would never be kept. Thus, while members concerned about whether benefits would be extended to illegal immigrants were assured that this would not be the case, members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in the House were being told that they shouldn’t worry about any restrictions in the healthcare bill because they would be removed later … in the administration’s promised immigration reform bill.

Recent news reports that Democratic leaders promised Hispanic Caucus members that provisions inserted in the healthcare to win the votes of others would be removed later suggest that South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson’s (R) charge that President Obama’s denial that the healthcare bill would cover illegal aliens was a lie was dead on.

The healthcare bill as passed and signed into law prohibits illegals from buying into the so-called healthcare exchanges that will be established under the law and denies even temporary legal immigrants access to Medicaid unless they’ve been here for five years. Hispanic Caucus leaders are now charging that the administration specifically promised to eliminate these and other restrictions and are vowing to hold the president and congressional Democratic leaders to that promise.

Under the Obama plan, of course, Medicaid has been expanded and something like half of all illegals in the country would qualify if the restrictions written into the law are removed, increasing the costs of a program that is already expected to exceed the estimates publicized by the administration before its passage by tens of billions of dollars.

The monetary cost of delivering on this promise would be enormous, but the political cost could be even higher. President Obama gives pretty good speeches, but fewer and fewer Americans are paying much attention to what he says. Some are beginning to ignore him for lack of follow-through or because he’s overexposed, but increasing numbers of those who were initially shocked by Wilson’s outburst are becoming convinced that he was right.

A president’s credibility is key to his success. When those he deals with in Washington or those on whose votes he relies for reelection conclude that his word isn’t worth much, his ability to lead vanishes.
------------David Keene is chairman of the American Conservative Union which also puts on CPAC every year. He is also managing associate with the Carmen Group, a Washington-based governmental consulting firm.Tags:David Keene, Barack Obama, credibility, Incredible, To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Race Card Fraud

It is truly amazing how liberals and the present administration use the race card when they are losing the confidence of the public especially their own base. At the same time, they dismiss or disparage the voices of conservatives including black conservative voices like Ken Thompson, Herman Cain, Thomas Sowell, Star Parker, and Walter Williams. Below is an article by Dr. Thomas Sowell addressing the deliberate use of the playing the race card and perverting race card fraud.
-------------by Dr. Thomas Sowell: Credit card fraud is a serious problem. But race card fraud is an even bigger problem. Playing the race card takes many forms.

Judge Charles Pickering, a federal judge in Mississippi who defended the civil rights of blacks for years and defied the Ku Klux Klan back when that was dangerous, was depicted as a racist when he was nominated for a federal appellate judgeship. No one even mistakenly thought he was a racist. The point was simply to discredit him for political reasons-- and it worked.

This year's target is the tea party movement. When leading Democrats, led by a smirking Nancy Pelosi, made their triumphant walk on Capitol Hill, celebrating their passage of a bill in defiance of public opinion, tea party members on the scene protested.

All this was captured on camera and the scene was played on television. What was not captured on any of the cameras and other recording devices on the scene was anybody using racist language, as has been charged by those playing the race card. When you realize how many media people were there, and how many ordinary citizens carry around recording devices of one sort or another, it is remarkable-- indeed, unbelievable-- that racist remarks were made and yet were not captured by anybody.

The latest attack on the tea party movement, by Ben Jealous of the NAACP, has once again played the race card. Like the proverbial lawyer who knows his case is weak, he shouts louder. This is not the first time that an organization with an honorable and historic mission has eventually degenerated into a tawdry racket. But that an organization like the NAACP, after years of fighting against genuine racism, should now be playing the game of race card fraud is especially painful to see.

Some critics of the tea parties have seized upon banners carried at one of the rallies that compared Obama with Hitler and Stalin. Extreme? Yes. But there was nothing racist about it, since extreme comparisons have been made about politicians of every race, color, creed, nationality, ideology and sexual preference. Some Obama supporters have long regarded any criticism of him as racism. But that they should have to resort to such a banner to bolster their case shows how desperate they are for any evidence.

Among people who voted for Barack Obama in 2008, those who are likely to be most disappointed are those who thought that they were voting for a new post-racial era. There was absolutely nothing in Obama's past to lead to any such expectation, and much to suggest the exact opposite. But the man's rhetoric and demeanor during the election campaign enabled this and many other illusions to flourish.

Still, it was an honest mistake of the kind that decent people have often made when dealing with people whose agendas are not constrained by decency, but only by what they think they can get away with.

On race, as on other issues, different people have radically different views of Barack Obama, depending on whether they judge him by what he says or by what he does. As Obama's own books point out, he has for years cultivated a talent for saying things that people will find congenial.

You want bipartisanship and an end to bickering in Washington? He will say that he wants bipartisanship and an end to bickering in Washington. Then he will shut Republicans out of the decision-making process and respond to their suggestions by reminding them that he won the election. A famous writer-- Ring Lardner, I believe-- once wrote: "'Shut up,' he explained."

You want a government that is open instead of secretive? He will say that. He will promise to post proposed legislation on the Internet long enough for everyone to read it and know what is in it before there is a vote. In practice, however, he has rushed massive bills through Congress too fast for anybody-- even the members of Congress-- to know what was in those bills.

Racial issues are more of the same. You want a government where all citizens are treated alike, regardless of race or ethnicity? Obama will say that. Then he will advocate appointing judges with "empathy" for particular segments of the population, such as racial minorities. "Empathy" is just a pretty word for the ugly reality of bias.

Obama's first nomination of a Supreme Court justice was a classic example of someone with "empathy" for some racial groups, but not others. As a Circuit Court judge, Sonia Sotomayor voted to dismiss a case involving white firefighters who had been denied the promotions for which they qualified, because not enough blacks or Hispanics passed the same test that they did. A fellow Hispanic judge protested the way the white firefighters' case was dismissed, rather than adjudicated. Moreover, the Supreme Court not only took the case, it ruled in favor of the firefighters.

Obama's injecting himself into a local police matter in Massachusetts, despite admitting that he didn't know the facts, to say that a white policeman was in the wrong in arresting a black professor who was a friend of Obama, was more of the same. So is Obama's Justice Department overlooking blatant voter intimidation by thugs who happen to be black.

There is not now, nor has there ever been, anything post-racial about Barack Obama, except for the people who voted for him in the mistaken belief that he shared their desire to be post-racial. When he leaves office, especially if it is after one term, he will leave this country more racially polarized than before.

Hopefully, he may also leave the voters wiser, though sadder, after they learn from painful experience that you can't judge politicians by their rhetoric, or ignore their past because of your hopes for the future. Voters may even wise up to race card fraud.
-------------Thomas Sowell is an American economist, social commentator, and author of dozens of books. He has a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago and degrees from Columbia University and Harvard University. He is a retired professor of Economic and presently is a Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University.Tags:Thomas Sowell, Barack Obama, Obama administration, race card, race card fraud, To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Where Are Those Jobs? The Real Jobs?

The GOP House Conferences again focuses on jobs. That is where the focus should be not the government subsidizing unemployment. "For months, Americans have been asking President Obama, where are the jobs? With a national unemployment rate of 9.5% -- and in some areas of Florida, Indiana and more in double digits -- will the Democrats take responsibility for their bad economic policies? Yesterday, President Obama gave a speech and blamed Republicans for some of the country's unemployment problems -- but how long can the blame game continue? Americans are hurting and any number of speeches won't put them back to work."

[I]t's better to pay attention to the "employment rate" rather than the "unemployment rate." If you stop looking for a job for a month you are booted out of the labor force, and hence don't show up in the ranks of the unemployed. But of course you are still without a job, it's just that "unemployment" (wink, wink) is now reduced. These shenanigans are why headline unemployment is around 10% whereas a more accurate estimate puts total unemployment at 22%.

No one pays much attention to the amount of people not in the labor force, so here's a little attention. Total people not in the labor force jumped by 4 million in the past three years (to 82.9 million from an average of 78.7 million in 2007). This is an increase to 34.9% from 33.9% of the civilian noninstitutional population. And it's in a census year that created roughly hundreds of thousands of jobs, not to mention the expansion of government over the past few years that added many more jobs.

Lots of people in the private sector don't have jobs, and . . . there are many private sector jobs out there indirectly supported by the government through stimulus, propping up of the housing market, government expansion, or even failure of banks to recognize losses. Unfortunately, the economic situation in this country is still dire and the headline unemployment number doesn't come close to describing the situation we're in for two reasons 1) it is artificially low and 2) it papers over the quality of jobs - government jobs are less valuable yet are not distinguished in the numbers.

Last year, House Republicans took the floor and asked President Obama and Democrats -- where are the jobs? Today, are still asking! The Obama Administration and Democrat Congressional leadership is expanding "government funded" jobs and using government funds to underwrite contracts and projects that temporarily create jobs. But these same Democrats are reducing and or restricting the growth of the private sector which creates jobs that are not dependent on you the taxpayers to fund. We need real jobs. [Video Below]

Today in Washington, D.C. - July 20, 2010 - Job Creation Is Not Be Obama's Forte

Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee began a markup on the nomination of Elena Kagan to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court. The committee will vote on her nomination today. At 2:15, VP Biden will swear in Carte Goodwin (D) as the junior senator from West Virginia before the Senate once again votes on cloture on the vehicle for an unemployment insurance extension [House message to accompany H.R. 4213]. This version would still add $34 billion to the national debt. Democrats have refused 5 Republican offers to pay for extending benefits. If cloture is invoked, the Senate will begin up to 30 hours of post-cloture debate.

The Wall Street Journal has a must-read editorial today explaining the real meaning of the debate over paying for unemployment benefits and President Obama’s press conference yesterday. The WSJ writes, “President Obama introduced three Americans—an auto worker, a fitness center employee and a woman in real estate—who've been out of work so long they underscore the failure of his economic program. . . . Sure, Mr. Obama's ostensible purpose was to lobby Congress for the eighth extension of jobless benefits since the recession began, to a record 99 weeks, or nearly two years. . . . But Mr. Obama was nonetheless obliged to concede that, 18 months after his $862 billion stimulus, there are still five job seekers for every job opening and that 2.5 million Americans will soon run out of unemployment benefits.”

As The Journal’s editors point out, “Only last week Vice President Joe Biden was hailing the stimulus for ‘saving or creating’ three million jobs. This week the White House says we need even more stimulus, in the form of jobless checks, to make up for the jobs his original spending stimulus didn't create.”

Why not? The WSJ writes, “The one possibility the President and Congressional Democrats won't entertain is that their own spending and taxing and regulating and labor union favoritism have become the main hindrance to job creation. Since February 2009, the jobless rate has climbed to 9.5% from 8.1%, and private industry has shed two million jobs. The overall economy has been expanding for at least a year, but employers still don't seem confident enough to add new workers. The economists who sold us the stimulus say it's a mystery. But maybe employers are afraid to hire because they don't know what costs government will impose on them next.”

And the government under the Obama administration and the Democrat majority in Congress has been imposing an awful lot of costs on job creators. Just today, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports, “The Kentucky Hospital Association Said in a report on Monday that Kentucky hospitals will lose $1.2 billion in revenues in the next 10 years because of health care reform.” Last week, The Wall Street Journal editors wrote of the financial regulation bill, “Dodd-Frank, with its 2,300 pages, will unleash the biggest wave of new federal financial rule-making in three generations. . . . In a recent note to clients, the law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell needed more than 150 pages merely to summarize the bureaucratic ecosystem created by Dodd-Frank. As the nearby table shows, the lawyers estimate that the law will require no fewer than 243 new formal rule-makings by 11 different federal agencies.” And then there’s the uncertainty over whether the administration’s next goal, a costly national energy tax, will be enacted.

It’s little wonder, then, that major business groups have been frustrated by this administration’s failure to foster an environment to create jobs. Just last month, what had been the administration’s closest ally, the Business Roundtable, blasted the White House for creating a “hostile environment for investment and job creation.” All the way back in January, the National Federation of Independent Business, representing small businesses across explained to The Washington Post that “members have been reluctant to invest in new equipment and employees because they remain wary of the country's nascent recovery.” And they excoriated the health care law, saying “Small business owners everywhere are rightfully concerned that the unconstitutional new mandates, countless rules and new taxes in the healthcare law will devastate their business and their ability to create jobs.”

Last week, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce criticized the Obama administration in an open letter to the President, Congress, and the American people: “Uncertainty is the enemy of growth, investment, and job creation . . . . Through their legislative and regulatory proposals—some passed, some pending, and others simply talked about—the congressional majority and the administration have injected tremendous uncertainty into economic decision making and business planning. In the process, we are also eroding our competitive position globally, as other nations take steps to cut taxes, reduce regulations, and restrain the appetites of government.”

This morning, Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell summed up the situation: “If ever there was an indictment of this administration's economic agenda it was yesterday's press conference. The administration asked taxpayers to foot the bill on a trillion dollar stimulus that he claimed would create 4 million jobs. A year and a half later the President is standing with three chronically unemployed Americans, some of the victims of a 9.5% unemployment rate, asking taxpayers for 34 billion more in deficit spending to continue paying their unemployed benefits. I think most Americans see the connection here.” This administration’s policies are fueling a awful environment for business where employers can’t add the jobs needed to grow the economy and put Americans back to work.Tags:US Senate, Washington, unemployment benefits, Barack Obama, jobs, employmentTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

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